Moms and Dads

5 Ways WFH Parents Can Support Their Work-Onsite Partners

For those who are Work-From-Home (WFH) or Stay-At-Home (SAH) parents and hate seeing their partners stressed, here are ways to help them destress.

Since the Philippines is opening up again, some of us are lucky enough to have a permanent work-from-home setup, whereas some report to the office. Unfortunately, that means facing the stress of going to and returning home from work again, on top of dealing with the laundry list of things to do as well as parenting duties at home. So for the WFH parents, here are some things we can do to help our partners who are working in the office to destress:

Photo by Lina Kivaka

1. Make them coffee.

Preparing coffee is not just an act of love anymore. It’s a moral obligation to ensure your partner doesn’t become a road hazard. It doesn’t have to be the fancy one. Even just a refrigerated 3-in-1 coffee will do. It will also satisfy their cravings and their urge to buy an iced coffee. That helps them save PHP150.00 ~ PHP200.00 a day.

Photo by cottonbro studio

2. Pull out food for dinner from the freezer.

Ordering takeout gets expensive and we don’t want the frozen meats and fresh vegetables to go bad. But the act of defrosting the frozen meat at least makes preparing dinner easier. Bonus: work-from-home parents can do a quick dry marinade with the basics: salt and pepper. Salt and pepper work with every dish, including just roasting a chicken or steaming it. It also lessens the mental load of having to think about what to eat for lunch or dinner.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

3. Don’t ask questions. Just do.

After 8 hours of non-stop thinking and no room for breaks, the last thing a parent who works onsite needs is a barrage of questions on how to run the house. After living together for so long, they’re expecting that we’ve picked up on the method of how they usually do it. They’re not expecting it to be 100% perfect but the effort is appreciated nonetheless. Bonus if you do a better job than they did!

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

4. If they need to rant, let them.

The corporate world sometimes demands a certain level of kapal ng mukha that can get stressful to maintain. Going home is when all that falls apart because now, there’s no need to hold it. Kids have something similar called “after-school restraint collapse.” Adults have “After Work Jerk Syndrome.”

So, if they’re going to be stressful, please be a bit patient and try not to immediately take it personally.

Photo by cottonbro studio

Dear WFH parents, it may take a bit of reading the room!

Being WFH allows some parents to manage their pace more than those who work onsite. These little things can actually help out since some are too tired to communicate their needs. While they may not always be on point, a little compassion goes a long way in helping partners who work on-site to settle down at home. Especially for those who live in the Metro, it’s not just the work that exhausts them but the commute, too.

More about work?

Melissa Gohing: “You Can Be A Good Mom and A Working Mom!”
3 Reasons Why Some Senior Citizens Insist On Working
Beauty Basics: A Mom’s Guide to the 5-Minute Makeup Look

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